Fallout heads to New Vegas in first look

Fallout was originally announced in 2020 during the pandemic and exceeded all expectations when season one dropped on Prime Video in April 2024. The live-action adaptation of Bethesda's video game franchise from the showrunners of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, is prestige television on par with HBO's The Last of Us.

Ahead of Gamescom, where a new Fallout video game is rumoured to be announced, Prime Video and Kilter Films have shared a first look at season two of Fallout. The new season will pick up in the aftermath of the debut season finale and take audiences along for a journey through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas. Season two will premiere this December exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Based on one of the most celebrated video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind – and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them.

The cast includes Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets, Sweetpea), Aaron Moten (Emancipation, Father Stu), Walton Goggins (The White Lotus, The Righteous Gemstones), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Desperate Housewives), Moisés Arias (The King of Staten Island, Jockey) and Frances Turner (The Boys, The Man in the High Castle).

Fallout season one has had more than 100 million viewers worldwide, ranking among the three most-watched shows ever on Prime Video.

The hit series based on the popular video game franchise will return for a third season as the show’s second season prepares to launch later this year on 17th December.

Fallout is streaming exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link).

Have you watched Fallout on Prime Video? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Fallout in New Vegas this December

In a surprise announcement, Fallout season two will premiere this holiday season on Prime Video.

Fallout is based on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time and is set 200 years after an apocalyptic event. The story follows the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters who are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind - and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

What happens in New Vegas, stays in New Vegas!

Season two will continue the story after season one’s finale, taking viewers through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas.

“We are absolutely thrilled that our global Prime Video customers will be able to delve deeper into the wonderfully surreal and captivating world of Fallout,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television, Amazon MGM Studios. “Jonah, Lisa, Geneva, and Graham have done an exceptional job bringing this beloved video game franchise to vivid life on Prime Video.”

The hit series based on the popular video game franchise will return for a third season as the show’s second season prepares to launch later this year.

Fallout is streaming exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link).

Have you watched Fallout on Prime Video? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Batman: Caped Crusader teases spooky Dark Knight

First announced in 2021, Batman: Caped Crusader was originally in development for HBO Max but was shelved in August 2022 by Warner Bros. Discovery as part of a larger cost-cutting strategy following the merger of the two media behemoths.

The hotly-anticipated animated series, executive produced by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series), JJ Abrams (Star Wars) and Matt Reeves (The Batman), was picked up for two seasons by Prime Video in early 2023.

Prime Video has dropped an official trailer for Batman: Caped Crusader season one.



Read the official synopsis:

"Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-man crusade attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications."

Starring Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and featuring a star-studded ensemble cast including: Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, Minnie Driver, Mckenna Grace, Eric Morgan Stuart, Michelle C. Bonilla, Krystal Joy Brown, John DiMaggio, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, Tom Kenny, Jason Watkins, Gary Anthony Williams, Dan Donohue, David Krumholtz, Haley Joel Osment and Toby Stephens.

Batman: Caped Crusader premieres exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link) on 1st August.

Are you looking forward to Batman: Caped Crusader? Let me know in the comments below.

Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The second season of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power premieres exclusively on Prime Video this August.

Read the official season two synopsis:

"In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other."

Tom Bombadil, a fan-favourite character from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic, steps into the fray played by Rory Kinnear.

“There’s this sense of huge experience, huge openness, huge empathy, and having gone through so much that he [Bombadil] knows it’s the small things that are important. That felt actually quite domestic, felt quite reachable in terms of my understanding of who he was.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (affiliate link) season one is streaming on Prime Video.

Are you looking forward to the second season of The Rings of Power? Let me know in the comments below.

Tomb Raider from Fleabag creator

An animated Tomb Raider series, starring Hayley Atwell (Mission Impossible), is currently in production for Netflix. Prime Video has confirmed a live-action series from Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

“If I could tell my teenage self that this was happening, I think she’d explode. Tomb Raider has been a huge part of my life and I feel incredibly privileged to be bringing it to television with such passionate collaborators. Lara means a lot to me, as she does to many, and I can’t wait to go on this adventure. Bats ‘n all," said Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Waller-Bridge is no stranger to archaeological adventures after appearing in Indiana Jones.

“I’m so happy to announce that we have ordered the epic, globetrotting series Tomb Raider from the incredibly gifted Emmy-award winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge and the team at Crystal Dynamics,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. “Fans and newcomers can look forward to exhilarating adventures that honor the legacy of this iconic character.”

The recent Fallout adaptation on Prime Video is stunning. So, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Tomb Raider will stream exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link).

Are you looking forward to a Tomb Raider live-action series? Let me know in the comments below.

Fallout renewed

Fallout is a spectacular success on Prime Video. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi series has been renewed for a second season.

Okey-dokey!

Fallout was originally announced in 2020 during the pandemic and has exceeded all expectations.

The live-action adaptation of Bethesda's video game franchise from the showrunners of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, is prestige television on par with HBO's The Last of Us. Like The Last of Us, viewers do not have to have prior knowledge of the Fallout games, but fans (myself included) can have fun spotting all the Easter eggs. The amazing Ella Purnell (Lucy MacLean) looks like a live-action Battle Angel Alita!

However, unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, all episodes of Fallout dropped on Prime Video on 11th April. I refuse to binge-watch and wish to savour the story weekly. This is an era of curated content and it's great that audiences can decide on how and when they consume media.

In related news. Following the release of the Fallout live-action series, Fallout 4 is the best-selling video game in Europe. I haven’t played Fallout 4 since the heyday of the PlayStation 4 (PS4). Somehow Codsworth, a robot butler, was MIA in the wasteland and my character, named Sarah Jane Smith in homage to the fan-favourite Doctor Who companion, failed to find him in shades of losing Lydia in Skyrim. Fallout 4 is getting a next-gen update next week and I’ll begin a new playthrough on Xbox Game Pass.

Fallout is streaming exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link).

Have you watched Fallout on Prime Video? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

The world of Fallout

All episodes of Fallout, the live-action adaptation of Bethesda's video game franchise from the showrunners of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, drop next week on Amazon Prime.



Read the official synopsis:

"A nuclear war breaks out across Earth in the year 2077—an era of robots, hover cars, and a deep and abiding nostalgia for the America of the 1940s. After the incendiary mushroom clouds, the story flashes forward 219 years. How did humanity fair over those blighted two centuries? Lucy (played by Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell) has no clue. She has lived her entire life inside a subterranean vault, where every need and want has been satisfied while generations and generations await the day when it is safe to surface. When a crisis forces Lucy to venture above on a rescue mission, she finds that the planet above remains a hellscape crawling with giant insects, voracious mutant animal abominations, and a human population of sunbaked miscreants."

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link) on 11th April.

Are you looking forward to Fallout on Prime Video? Let me know in the comments below.

Fallout at SXSW

A live-action adaptation of Fallout from the showrunners of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, is coming soon to Amazon Prime, and an official trailer dropped today ahead of South by Southwest (SXSW).



Read the official synopsis:

"A nuclear war breaks out across Earth in the year 2077—an era of robots, hover cars, and a deep and abiding nostalgia for the America of the 1940s. After the incendiary mushroom clouds, the story flashes forward 219 years. How did humanity fair over those blighted two centuries? Lucy (played by Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell) has no clue. She has lived her entire life inside a subterranean vault, where every need and want has been satisfied while generations and generations await the day when it is safe to surface. When a crisis forces Lucy to venture above on a rescue mission, she finds that the planet above remains a hellscape crawling with giant insects, voracious mutant animal abominations, and a human population of sunbaked miscreants."

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link) on 11th April.

Are you looking forward to Fallout on Prime Video? Let me know in the comments below.

Fallout teaser trailer

Prime Video has dropped a teaser trailer for Fallout from the showrunners of Westworld.



Read the official synopsis:

"A nuclear war breaks out across Earth in the year 2077—an era of robots, hover cars, and a deep and abiding nostalgia for the America of the 1940s. After the incendiary mushroom clouds, the story flashes forward 219 years. How did humanity fair over those blighted two centuries? Lucy (played by Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell) has no clue. She has lived her entire life inside a subterranean vault, where every need and want has been satisfied while generations and generations await the day when it is safe to surface. When a crisis forces Lucy to venture above on a rescue mission, she finds that the planet above remains a hellscape crawling with giant insects, voracious mutant animal abominations, and a human population of sunbaked miscreants."

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link) on 12th April.

What did you think of the teaser trailer for Fallout on Prime Video? Let me know in the comments below.

Fallout first look

Vanity Fair has an exclusive first look at Fallout from the showrunners of Westworld.

“The games are about the culture of division and haves and have-nots that, unfortunately, have only gotten more and more acute in this country and around the world over the last decades,” said showrunner Jonathan Nolan, who is adapting the game series with wife Lisa Joy and directed the first three episodes.

“We get to talk about that in a wonderful, speculative-fiction way. I think we’re all looking at the world and going, ‘God, things seem to be heading in a very, very frightening direction.’”

The live-action adaptation of Fallout is canon as Bethesda's Todd Howard explained to Vanity Fair.

“We view what’s happening in the show as canon,” he said. “That’s what’s great, when someone else looks at your work and then translates it in some fashion.

“I did not want to do an interpretation of an existing story we did. That was the other thing—a lot of pitches were, you know, ‘This is the movie of Fallout 3…’ I was like, ‘Yeah, we told that story.’ I don’t have a lot of interest seeing those translated. I was interested in someone telling a unique Fallout story. Treat it like a game. It gives the creators of the series their own playground to play in.”

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video (affiliate link) on 12th April.

Are you looking forward to Fallout on Prime Video? Let me know in the comments below.

Merry Little Batman

Holy Christmas caper, Batman! Merry Litte Batman, a new animated movie for the holiday season, is coming to Prime Video.

Read the official synopsis:

"Merry Little Batman is an animated family action comedy destined to join the rogue's gallery of classic holiday movies. When young Damian Wayne finds himself alone in Wayne Manor on Christmas Eve, he must transform into "Little Batman'' in order to defend his home and Gotham City from the crooks and supervillains intent on destroying the holidays."

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and based on characters from DC, Merry Little Batman features the voices of Yonas Kibreab, Luke Wilson, James Cromwell, and David Hornsby, and is directed by Mike Roth (Regular Show) from a screenplay by Morgan Evans (Teen Titans Go!) and Jase Ricci (Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham). Roth also serves as executive producer, alongside Sam Register (Looney Tunes Cartoons).

Merry Little Batman was one of the animated projects cancelled at HBO Max in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Amazon has also acquired Batman: Caped Crusader, from executive producers Bruce Timm, JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves, for Prime Video.

Merry Little Batman will be available on the 8th of December on Prime Video (affiliate link).

Are you looking forward to Merry Little Batman on Prime Video? Let me know in the comments below.

Star Trek: The Last Generation

In 2017, I wrote about how Star Trek: The Next Generation filled an endless void vacated by Doctor Who in 1989.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was a seminal series foreshadowing technology many of us use daily. From touchscreens to voice assistants... “Alexa, play Star Trek!”, words my younger self never imagined saying for real as I avidly read Marvel UK’s official magazine.

Soon I had a teenage crush on Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) who vied for poster space with actresses Jennifer Connelly (Labyrinth) and Winona Ryder (Heathers).

For seven seasons (across BBC 2 and Sky 1), I followed the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D as I navigated further education. There are too many favourite episodes to list here, but Q Who?, Yesterday’s Enterprise, Cause & Effect and The Best of Both Worlds Part 1 deserve special mention.

Star Trek would spawn further spin-off series including Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. However, none of them would capture my imagination the way The Next Generation did!

When Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) announced Star Trek: Picard, I was hoping to see the old gang reunited for one last epic adventure worthy of Gene Roddenberry’s beloved allegorical wagon train in space.

Instead, we had two mixed seasons of a sci-fi series that didn’t know what it wanted to be - aside from driving subscriptions to the nascent streaming service in an overcrowded market dominated by Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+ (buoyed by iPhone sales) - featuring a cast of characters mostly unknown to fans (myself included).

This wasn’t Star Trek’s The Mandalorian.

So, when the final season of Star Trek: Picard was announced, I was apathetic! After a promising start, I bailed on season two and was done with most of the Star Trek spin-offs (aside from Strange New Worlds). However, something unexpected happened. I started seeing more and more rave reviews for season three and felt it incumbent on me to at least watch the premiere on Amazon Prime (affiliate link).

“Computer, play Star Trek: Picard!” And my Alexa-enabled Sony BRAVIA XR TV obliged.

I’d grown up on terrestrial television reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek movies on the big screen. Star Trek: Picard opens with a knowing nod to the franchise’s zenith: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan…

To boldly go in search of Easter eggs.

All the callbacks. All the feels. I was transported back to a time when the franchise was fun, filled with optimism and hope writ large in widescreen. Hearing the iconic music of Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner (arguably underused until now) and Cliff Eidelman heralding the return of childhood heroes left me misty-eyed as the USS Titan left Spacedock in a spectacular homage to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

In the words of Admiral Kirk: “To absent friends...”

A touching tribute to actress Annie Wersching tipped me over the edge, and I was an ugly mess as the end credits rolled! Wersching had played the Borg Queen in season two and was the best thing about it. She passed away from cancer in January aged 45.

Afterwards, I hopped onto social media to encourage friends to watch the best Star Trek spin-off series in decades.

Trust no one.

Amid the homages to the movie and television franchises, there are echoes of the McCarthy era, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Invaders and The X-Files. Oh, there's also a narrative nod to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. And I’m here for it.

The return of Ro Laren was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Even though it was spoiled by Paramount’s official social media channels. Apologies if you’re only finding out now.

Forbes was excellent as Ensign Ro, who pushed back against Starfleet exceptionalism before defecting to the Maquis, in Star Trek: The Next Generation and later played the nihilistic Admiral Cain in the acclaimed Battlestar Galactica reboot of the early noughties.

Ro is now a Commander, tasked with bringing Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Captain Riker (Jonathan Frakes) back to Starfleet Command to stand trial for treason in an episode that packs an emotional punch, which I refuse to spoil.

Between the earned fan service and hopes for Star Trek: Legacy from series showrunner Terry Matalas, Star Trek: Picard is a salient reminder of the passage of time and that all things are temporary (alas, as are we). Sir Patrick Stewart and my father are octogenarians, which deeply resonated.

The third time’s the charm for this found family!

Ultimately, Star Trek: Picard sticks the landing with Galaxy-class finesse (carpets included) in a way unimaginable (by this fan) before the third season’s triumphant nostalgia-laden premiere in The Next Generation. Yes, I cried tears of joy (and relief). It was everything.

Engage!

Have you seen Star Trek: Picard? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Paramount+ home of all things Star Trek

Star Trek: Picard beams onto Paramount+ internationally outside of Canada, making the streaming service the home of all things Star Trek.

“The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard will premiere day and date with the U.S. in Latin America on Feb. 16 and on Feb. 17 in the U.K., Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with South Korea to premiere at a later date,” Paramount said in a press release on Wednesday. “Previous seasons of Star Trek: Picard will also be available in English-speaking regions starting this February. All seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks are currently available to stream on Paramount+ in Latin America and will be available later this year across all Paramount+ markets outside Canada.”

It concluded: “Paramount+ is now the home to every series and every episode of the full catalog of Star Trek. This includes all seasons of the Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy, and the newest addition Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”

I'll watch the final season of Star Trek: Picard on Amazon Prime (affiliate link) as the Paramount+ app for Sony BRAVIA televisions doesn't support surround sound or 4K UHD.

Are you subscribing to Paramount+? Are you still aggrieved about the fallout from Star Trek: Discovery being pulled from Netflix? Let me know in the comments below.

Amazon adventures for Tomb Raider

Following rumours of a new Tomb Raider video game announcement at this year's E3, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) is purportedly in talks to develop a live-action series for Amazon Prime.

The beloved video game franchise was rebooted to critical acclaim in 2013 with Camilla Luddington (Grey's Anatomy) playing Lara Croft. This is the year PlayStation exclusive The Last of Us was also released. The latter has a live-action adaptation currently streaming on HBO Max.

Waller-Bridge’s first archaeological adventure is starring alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this June.

Are you excited about a Tomb Raider series from Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Amazon Prime? Who would you like to see play the titular character? Let me know in the comments below.

Icons Unearthed: Star Wars

Last summer, I avidly watched Light & Magic on Disney+. The unsentimental documentary series chronicled the founding of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) by George Lucas during the filming of Star Wars.

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms, I recently stumbled across Icons Unearthed: Star Wars on Freevee in the UK.

Icons Unearthed is produced and directed by Brian Volk-Weiss, founder of The Nacelle Company, who also created the geektastic shows The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us for Netflix.

Icons Unearthed is available free on Amazon Prime (affiliate link).

The Rings of Power

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (affiliate link) has concluded on Amazon Prime. Is Tolkien's rich tapestry used to great effect or to boost sales in Alexa's walled garden on Black Friday?

Nick Smith, our US-based stellar scribe, travels back to Middle-earth to witness the forging of the rings of power in the shadow of Mordor.

Guest post by Nick Smith

There was a time long ago when orcs were in. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy ruled movie theatres and everyone followed the adventures of Frodo Baggins and his furry-toed friends.

Although those moments are lost to all but memory and overpriced DVD box sets, there’s enough love for them and their Hobbit prequels to justify Amazon’s $1 billion series, The Rings of Power.

A reported sum of over $200 million secured the rights to the franchise, the rest goes towards the production of this (hopefully) five-year series.

It's good. It’s epic. The acting is excellent and the heroes are likeable – Robert Aramayo makes a perfect pointy-eared elf ambassador; Ismael Cruz Cordova is a superb, stoic warrior. Archetypes and cultures from the books are present, never looking down its nose at dwarves, depicting the orcs as ornery and formidable.

There was a time, 10,000 songs ago, when all that discerning Tolkien fans dreamed of was a conclusion to Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of the saga. The pioneering, delightfully demented filmmaker used actors as templates for his cartoon characters, giving them hyper-real movement. This was an expensive, arduous process and Bakshi fell out with producer Saul Zaentz.

Bakshi was only able to film part of the saga and fans never thought they’d see The Return of the King at the movies, let alone a lavish prequel like The Rings of Power. Now we are spoiled with stories so long that the tellers can take their sweet time to introduce and develop characters and situations, unveil mysteries and foreshadow the events of the books.

There‘s a reason why television shows were 45 minutes in length for decades. Rings strives to hold our attention for over an hour with segments that eke out the narrative. Impatient people beware. The first episode, for example, opens with several minutes of exposition before we get to the central narrative.

Through it all, we’re led by Galadriel (performed with boldness and grace by Morfydd Clark). The focus on female characters never seems forced and the sense of scale and travel, abetted by maps, is adequately grand.

There was a time, long ago, when the gentle folk of the smokin’ 60s read Tolkien’s books and found that the theme of nature versus destructive progress resonated with them and made their beards bristle. Fortunately, that same theme – developed to great effect in the movies, as the orcs destroyed the landscape – is revisited here.

There was a time, far away in years, when a linguist and educator wrote fantasy novels.

The theme of war’s futility clicked with the veterans who read them. The battle scenes glimpsed in The Rings of Power are lavish and exciting with high stakes for the heroes – one lost skirmish and they could lose their lands, their family or friends.

Magic is used sparingly and shown to be so powerful that the characters can barely control it, let alone understand it.

With The Rings of Power, Jeff Bezos wants a piece of HBO’s action. Both Rings and House of the Dragon are prequels to high-profile fantasy sagas. We know what’s going to happen thanks to references in the original texts.

However, compared to the saucy Dragon, Rings is chaste and far more family-friendly. It’s none the worse for that. Dragon has a seam of betrayal and tragedy that has yet to be mined in Rings, although this is partly redressed with a glimpse of the dreaded Mordor. There’s enough difference between the two shows to make them both worth watching.

There were other times, other themes to explore, and other battles to be fought. But they would have to wait for future years and destined streams ahead.

Have you watched The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? Let me know in the comments below.

60 years of James Bond

“Bond… James Bond!” Today is the 60th anniversary of Dr. No. For over six decades, there have been 25 official James Bond movies starring Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and most recently Daniel Craig who bowed out in No Time To Die.

Growing up in the seventies and eighties, Roger Moore was my James Bond, much like Tom Baker was my Doctor Who. Mum and dad took me to see Moonraker in the wake of Star Wars and I was hooked. Hooked on collecting licensed Corgi toys, too.

A few years later, I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS) on ITV as I played with Action Man and Action Force toys following a hospital outpatient appointment. Lazenby's one and only appearance as the titular spy became my favourite instalment in the beloved franchise. A hero's journey with a tragic twist.

Like many fans, a lifelong love of gadgets was sparked by the adventures of 007. Incidentally, the Walther P38, used in From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, was Decepticon leader Megatron's alt mode in Transformers: Generation 1.

British composer John Barry's soundtracks still leave me shaken and stirred on car journeys. Sorry, not sorry.

Who is your favourite James Bond? Let me know in the comments below.

Sky Stream spells the end for satellite TV

In 2000, I signed up for Sky satellite television and was one of the first customers to try Sky+ - I'd previously owned a TiVo digital recorder. Then, in 2008 I cancelled Sky and moved over to Freesat. This coincided with the financial crash and echoes the current cost of living crisis.

I was contacted, via this blog, to preview GO!VIEW on PlayStation Portable (PSP)! A joint venture between Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and BSkyB. Allowing PSP owners to access television, movies and sports on-demand and on the move. I panned GO!VIEW as being half-baked and for failing to be platform agnostic in my review as a Mac User in 2009.

When NOW (formerly NOW TV) was launched in 2012, I didn't hesitate to subscribe as broadband had come of age coupled with the advent of nascent streaming services led by Netflix.

For several years, I was a beta tester for NOW (including the company's badged Roku products and the Apple TV app). I could see the future potential for the NOW streaming service even though Sky remained focused on its primary satellite subscription business to its detriment.

With the streaming wars reaching their zenith in 2022, Sky (a division of Comcast) has announced Sky Stream, which is an internet-connected box that offers Sky Glass to customers who don't want or need a new television.

Stephen van Rooyen, Executive Vice President & CEO, UK & Europe, “Sky’s always reinvented the TV experience and offered the best content – but it’s not always been accessible to everyone. There couldn’t be a better time to launch our latest innovation using the Sky Glass Platform – whether you want to stream House of the Dragon, Gangs of London or Stranger Things, Sky Stream has it all. It’s the most affordable and easiest way to get Sky TV and Netflix together, offering consumers the value they are seeking right now.”

The Sky Stream device is available for existing and new Sky Glass customers now. It will also be available as a standalone device from 18th October. The 18-month contract costs £26 per month with a £20 initial setup fee. The 31-day rolling plan starts at £29 per month with a £39.95 setup fee.

Sky Stream offers all the usual add-ons, such as BT Sport, Sky Sports, Sky Cinema (includes Paramount+), 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos. Sky's subscription model still skews to tiered paywalls when many competitors offer 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos at no extra cost.

Like other streaming boxes or dongles from NOW, Sky Stream doesn't require installation, so you can easily set it up yourself.

As a chord-cutter a decade ago, I'm tempted to subscribe to Sky Stream as it bundles Netflix and apps for Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, YouTube, All4, Paramount+ and many more. This is timely, as app support for my Samsung JS9000 is coming to an end after 7 years. Currently, I have a PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Xbox Series S connected to it.

What do you think of Sky Stream? Are you tempted to subscribe? Does it spell the end of satellite television? Let me know in the comments below.

Blade Runner 2099 greenlit by Amazon

Not content with making the most expensive streaming series ever made in the form of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (exclusively on Amazon Prime), Amazon Studios is producing a Blade Runner series set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049.

“We recognise that we have a very high bar to meet with this next instalment [sic],” Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, co-CEOs and co-founders of Alcon, said in a statement. “Together with Silka and our partners at Amazon, and Scott Free Productions, we hope that we can live up to that standard and delight audiences with the next generation of Blade Runner.”

Amazon Studios’ head of global television, Vernon Sanders, says Sir Ridley Scott’s (Alien) original 1982 film is one of the greatest and most influential sci-fi movies of all time.

“We are honoured to be able to present this continuation of the Blade Runner franchise, and are confident that by teaming up with Ridley, Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and the remarkably talented Silka Luisa, Blade Runner 2099 will uphold the intellect, themes and spirit of its film predecessors,” Sanders said.

Personally, I loved Blade Runner 2049 as evidenced in my review of director Denis Villeneuve's (Dune) superlative sequel to Scott's Blade Runner. There were tears of joy in the rain.

Are you looking forward to Blade Runner 2099? Let me know in the comments below.

Howard Shore returns to The Lord of the Rings

My journey into Middle-earth began in childhood when scholarly neighbour friends gifted me a copy of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. This was shortly before a screening of Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings at the local Odeon (I still have a copy of the free promotional brochure handed out to audiences).

A few years later, Brian Sibley's audio adaptation for BBC Radio 4 and The Hobbit video game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum cemented a love of all things Tolkien.

The latest live-action adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy epic was announced in 2017 and then seemingly lost, like the one ring to rule them all, to the mists of time. All the while new competitors entered the streaming space as a pandemic engulfed the world.

On 2nd September, Amazon Prime subscribers (myself included) will be able to watch the first season of a billion-dollar prequel series entitled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Read the official synopsis:

"Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone."

SlashFilm reports via Deadline that Hollywood composer Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) is returning to the franchise. The award-winning composer will be joined by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica).

“With their deep understanding of the Tolkien legendarium, coupled with two of the greatest musical talents of our age, we’re thrilled that Howard and Bear are joining us on this epic journey to Middle-earth,” said Bob Bowen, Worldwide Head of Music for Amazon Studios.

McCreary said:

"As I set out to compose the score for this series, I strove to honor Howard Shore's musical legacy. When I heard his majestic main title, I was struck by how perfectly his theme and my original score, though crafted separately, fit together so beautifully. I am excited for audiences to join us on this new musical journey to Middle-earth."

McCreary has released themes for Galadriel and Sauron on Amazon Music (affiliate link).

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). Prime Video brought a new trailer along.



Are you excited to return to Middle-earth for the first time since Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy? Let me know in the comments below.